AN INVESTIGATION is under way after an elderly man was killed and a woman seriously injured in a horror crash on the A12.

Russell Claydon

AN INVESTIGATION is under way after an elderly man was killed and a woman seriously injured in a horror crash on the A12.

It came as sub-zero temperatures over the weekend produced treacherous driving conditions which also saw a 15-year-old girl killed in a crash near to the Suffolk-Norfolk border.

The collision on the A12 happened at around 2.30pm yesterday afternoon at Woodbridge near the junction for the Seckford Hall Hotel.

Firefighters had to use specialist cutting equipment to reach the elderly couple, who are believed to be from the local area, from their Ford Fiesta. Their car had collided with a Mitsubishi Shogun, which was travelling north on the A12.

Three ambulance vehicles attended the scene but paramedics could do nothing to help the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

The woman was taken to Ipswich Hospital with breathing difficulties and suspected internal injuries.

Long queues of traffic built up around the scene of the crash, stretching back to the junction with the A1214 at Martlesham Heath.

Inspector Mark Larner, of Suffolk police, called for anybody who witnessed the crash to get in touch.

“A two-vehicle road traffic collision occurred at approximately 2.29pm at the A12 near to the junction of Seckford Hall Hotel,” he said.

“There is a confirmed male fatality and a female has been taken to hospital.

“We are appealing for witnesses to this incident to call Pc Gary Buss at Suffolk police on 01473 613500.”

The accident happened as police reported a number of problems on the region's roads as temperatures plummeted - with the majority of the accidents happening in Norfolk.

A 15-year-old girl died as she was travelling as a passenger in a Vauxhall Corsa, which left the road and crashed into a tree on the A143 between Belton crossroads and St Olaves in Norfolk at just after 8.30am yesterday.

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said it was the worst single day for road accidents staff could remember in Norfolk with, by late afternoon, crews being called to 28 separate incidents and taking 13 casualties to hospital.

More than 55 further damage-only crashes were reported to police as the icy conditions caused havoc on many of the county's roads.

In Essex, a 30-year-old motorcyclist died when he came off his bike in Mersea Road, Colchester, at about 2.30pm yesterday.